Darwin has a tropical savannah climate (K�ppen Awgi) with distinct wet and dry seasons and the average maximum temperature is similar all year round. The dry season runs from May to September (the southern hemisphere winter), during which nearly every day is warm and sunny, and afternoon humidity averages around 30%.
There is very little rainfall between May and September. In the coolest months of June and July, the daily minimum temperature may dip as low as 14 �C (57 �F), but very rarely lower, and frost has never been recorded.
The wet season is associated with tropical cyclones, monsoon rains and severe hurricanes. The majority of rainfall occurs between December and March (the southern hemisphere summer), when thunderstorms are common and afternoon relative humidity averages over 70 percent during the wettest months. It does not rain every day during the wet season, but most days are warm to hot with plentiful cloud cover; January averages under 6 hours of bright sunshine daily. Darwin's highest Bureau of Meteorology verified daily rainfall total is 367.6 millimetres (14.47 in), which fell when Cyclone Carlos bore down on the Darwin area on 16 February 2011. February 2011 was also Darwin's wettest month ever recorded, with 1,110.2 millimetres (43.71 in) recorded for the month at the airport.
The hottest month is November, just before the onset of the main rainy season. Because of its long dry season, Darwin has the most daily average sunshine hours (8.4) of any Australian capital with the most sunshine from April to November. The sun passes directly overhead in mid October and mid February. Climatically Darwin has more in common with Singapore than Sydney because it sits well inside the tropical zone.
Darwin occupies one of the most lightning-prone areas in the world. On 31 January 2002 an early-morning squall line produced over 5,000 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a 60 kilometres (37 mi) radius of Darwin alone - about
